Sleeping with Dogs

In the 60s a young woman contested her father’s will.  He lived in an isolated cabin with his dogs and never went out.  Depending on the weather he slept with some of his dogs.  In the depths of winter he would sleep with all five dogs.  The daughter thought this proved that he was of unsound mind. In 1967, maybe because of this news story, a rock band, still recording today, named itself the Three Dog Night.

Catherine chose and named Wag when she was in first grade.  He was a black terrier puppy, one of five black or white litter-mates who’d just arrived at the SPCA.  In my opinion the pups had been taken from their mother too soon.  Wag wagged and licked; he was appealing.  The older dogs had little chance of adoption.  I tried to convince Catherine that an old dog would make a better pet – “Oh look at this beautiful dog!”  It was no use, Catherine and Wag had fallen for each other.

Wag whined the incessant, rhythmic, almost supersonic cry of the distressed puppy his entire first night with us .  We had prepared quilts on the floor beside Catherine’s bed for him.  The next night we put a mattress on the floor in the living room and the two young animals slept peacefully together all night long.  When flea and tick season rolled around we put Catherine back on her own bed.  It made no difference – Wag leapt up to join her with vulpine grace.

Catherine now has two Yorkshire terriers.  They sleep with her – peacefully.  She was at a conference in California last week.  We kept her dogs.

When Sammy was Catherine’s only dog she drove to the Midwest to get Cricket, the younger dog.  We kept Sammy for a weekend.  At bedtime the first night Sammy threw himself through the upstairs bedroom door, climbed the stairs, jumped onto the bed, and snuggled at my feet.  I liked having this foot warmer that cold fall night.

This dog visit I moved to the downstairs bed so that the dogs could sleep with me; Ox doesn’t enjoy sharing his bed with dogs.

The first, peaceful, night I slept between the two dogs – I under the covers, they on top.  I didn’t have much room to move.  When I got up during the night, Sammy, who was on the downhill side leapt off and had difficulty getting back up on the bed.

The next night I tried to persuade both dogs to sleep on the same side.  This did not work; the dogs snapped at each other.  The third night repeated the second.

The fourth night Sammy slept on the uphill side and Cricket on the downhill.  This worked well.  We continued in this configuration until Catherine returned to retrieve her dogs.  My two dog nights are over.

I sleep with Ox again.  Getting up in the night is much easier.  Though I miss the friendly warmth of the dogs, Ox beats the dogs all hollow as a bed companion on these hot spring nights.